South Korean Gaming News (i.e. StarCraft News)

With the impending launch of StarCraft II, all is not well in the land of the Zergling Rush. Blizzard, the company who created StarCraft (as well as Warcraft and Diablo), has demanded that revenue from televised professional tournaments be shared with them. Meanwhile, accusations of illegal gambling and match-fixing has scandalized the country’s professional Star Craft scene. Oh, you didn’t know that an alternate universe existed in which StarCraft is a pro sport and women give birth to healthy ‘Zerglings’?

zergling rush!

Until the rest of the world catches up, South Korea is the only country where playing a 15 year-old pc game can turn your gamer tag into a household name.

With police investigations and Blizzard’s pending plans for new Korean “programs”, e-sports could be headed for some changes. Since KeSPA (Korean E-Sports Players Association) has refused for the past 3 years to split their profit with Blizzard, the gaming company has abandoned all attempts to negotiate and is “looking for a new partner” in S. Korea. ”We’re focusing on the community aspect of E-sports more than the financial aspects. If we turn a profit, we plan to reinvest a large portion of it to developing e-sports even further, in the form of sponsorships, prize money, etc” (Yonhap via Team Liquid). It seems like they might be looking to develop e-sports partnerships in other countries as well. Their plans are not without setbacks however, as the S. Korean gov’t has recently slapped Starcraft II with an “adult” rating, which would restrict broadcasting and lower that profit margin everyone’s fighting over. The announcement seems on par with recent gov’t attempts to kick the nation’s serious gaming addiction, including the soon-to-be enacted gaming curfew. This law might seem wacky to Americans but it’s not unusual for Korean kids to spend all, seriously, all night chatting and gaming.

internet payne

While the company has filed an objection to the rating, it managed to come up with an answer to the “internet payne” it has unleashed on the innocent children of korea ^^ stating that “World of Warcraft willingly introduced the world’s first fatigue system to prevent people getting too deeply involved… we’re protecting our users through a variety of methods… Soon, we are going to unveil a program for giving back to the community in Korea.” What this mysterious “program” will consist of, I can only wonder but maybe Korea’s e-sports industry would be better off with Blizzard’s help. According to the Blizzard forum, they are not afraid to wield the banhammer having recently “banned over 320,000… accounts that were found to be violating the Battle.net Terms of Use.” Then again, there’s the argument that Blizzard is just another conniving money-hungry corporation and that they shouldn’t take for granted the massive amounts of free advertising they receive in Korea…